Dan Gallagher has narrated 27 audiobooks on Listento.it by 9 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 132 ratings. The most-rated is The Gift of Therapy.
Legends of the Ancient World: The Life and Legacy of Constantine the Great
Summary
It would be hard if not outright impossible to overstate the impact Roman Emperor Constantine I had on the history of Christianity, ancient Rome, and Europe as a whole. Best known as Constantine the Great, the kind of moniker only earned by rulers who have distinguished themselves in battle and conquest, Constantine remains an influential and controversial figure to this day. He achieved enduring fame by being the first Roman emperor to personally convert to Christianity, and for his notorious Edict of Milan, the imperial decree which legalized the worship of Christ and promoted religious freedom throughout the Empire. More than 1500 years after Constantine’s death, Abdu'l-Bahá, the head of the Bahá'í Faith, wrote, "His blessed name shines out across the dawn of history like the morning star, and his rank and fame among the world's noblest and most highly civilized is still on the tongues of Christians of all denominations."
©2013 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors
The Inquisition in the New World
Summary
“When you tell someone your secret, your freedom is gone.” (Fernando de Rojas)
The notorious Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century, the subject of multiple documentaries, movies, and other pop culture mediums, is remembered for its oppression, barbarous torture, and religious tyranny.
It was roughly around this time that a period of European exploration began. Trade was able to increase in Europe from around the world due to more effective ships being introduced. The introduction of multiple mast ships and sternpost rudders allowed the ships to travel quicker and be more maneuverable. By the start of the 15th century, ships were much larger and able to support long-distance travel with a minimum number of crew aboard.
One explorer, Christopher Columbus, sought funding from the Portuguese to search for a passage to Asia by sailing westward, but he was rejected. At this time in the late 15th century, Portugal’s domination of the West African sea routes prompted the neighboring Crown of Castile and the Catholic monarchs in modern Spain to search for an alternative route to South and East Asia (termed Indies) so they provided Columbus with the funding he required. Ultimately, Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492, and Spanish settlements in the “West Indies” would eventually be established.
New Spain was established in the aftermath of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521, and as the most spectacular conquest and the richest province, New Spain quickly became the focus of Spanish America. The Viceroyalty of New Spain was established in 1535, comprising a vast region of what is now the American Southwest: all of Mexico, Central America, the various Spanish-held islands of the Caribbean, the “Spanish Main”, and the Spanish Far East Empire (comprised mainly of the Philippines). The Viceroyalty of New Castile (later named the Viceroyalty of Peru) was established in 1542 and comprised all of Spain’s South American territory, such as it was defined, excluding the Guianas. In 1610, the viceregency of New Granada was established with its capital in Cartagena, comprising the modern states of Columbia, Venezuela, a portion of Ecuador, and Panama. In 1776, after much jostling with the southern frontier of Portuguese Brazil, the viceregency of Rio la Plata was formed, comprising Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, with Buenos Aires as its capital. The Portuguese, of course, established their territory of Brazil with its capital as Rio de Janeiro.
Not surprisingly, as the Catholic empires expanded across the globe, persecution would travel with them, and the horrors experienced by indigenous populations in these colonies rivaled anything heretics back in Europe faced. The Inquisition in the New World looks at how the Inquisitions came to be, the manner in which it was exported west, and how people were tortured and executed.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
Hathor: The History of the Ancient Egyptian Sky Goddess and Symbolic Mother of the Pharaohs
Summary
Africa may have given rise to the first human beings, and Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations, which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe nearly 5,000 years later. From the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the ancient Egyptians produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized architecture and construction, created some of the world’s first systems of mathematics and medicine, and established language and art that spread across the known world. With world-famous leaders like King Tut and Cleopatra, it’s no wonder that today’s world has so many Egyptologists. Today, the goddess Hathor is one of the least known deities in the ancient Egyptian pantheon, and the ancient Egyptians would surely be surprised by this fact. Hathor enjoyed a principal position among the gods of ancient Egypt for much of Egyptian history. If anything, she was ubiquitous, with several key cult centers at Dendera, Memphis, and Thebes, and she played various roles for Egyptian society. Like many Egyptian deities, Hathor took the form of animals at times. She could "become" a vulture, a cow, or a human, but she was most often depicted as the latter. She is identified in her human form by her long black hair, tied back with a filet beneath a pair of cow horns with the sun disk in between them. The presence of the disk between the horns is a clear indication of her association with the sun deity. That she wore a uraeus - the upright snake seen on the forehead of royal gods and humans - is a sign of her association with royalty, too. Whenever an ancient Egyptian deity was associated with royalty, they invariably had a connection with one of the first divine kings: Ra, Osiris, or Horus. Hathor, however, had connections with all three. In the case of her cult center at Dendera, she was not just the wet nurse or mother of Horus - as was the case later with Isis - but she was also his consort. In this way, she became the consort of all kings and as such, garnered the characteristics of an "ideal" partner or queen. This consort of kings was also adept at magic, particularly healing magic, which would become a more predominant characteristic of Hathor in the myths in which she appeared with Horus. Aside from this more mundane role, she was also the "great cow of the heavens that gave birth to the sun" at Dendera. Hathor: The History of the Ancient Egyptian Sky Goddess and Symbolic Mother of the Pharaohs examines the history of the deity, her characteristics, and her lasting legacy on Egypt. You will learn about Hathor like never before.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
Operation Condor: The History of the Notorious Intelligence Operations Supported by the United States to Combat Communists Across South America
Summary
“Let's say there were 7,000 or 8,000 people who had to die to win the war against subversion... We couldn't execute them by firing squad. Neither could we take them to court... For that reason, so as not to provoke protests inside and outside the country, the decision was reached that these people should be disappeared.” (General Jorge Rafael Videla) For much of the 20th century, South American governments in large part lived under a system of military junta governments. The mixture of indigenous peoples, foreign settlers and European colonial superpowers produced cultural and social imbalances into which military forces intervened as a stabilizing influence. The proactive personalities of military heads and the rigid structures of such a hierarchy guaranteed the “strong man” commanding officer an abiding presence in the form of executive dictator. Such leaders often bore the more collaborative title of “president,” but the reality was, in most cases, identical. Likewise, the gap between rich and poor was often vast, and a disappearance of the middle class fed a frequent urge for revolution, reenergizing the military’s intent to stop it. With no stabilizing center, the ideologies most prevalent in such conflicts alternated between a federal model of industrial and social nationalization and an equally conservative structure under privatized ownership and autocratic rule drawn from the head of a junta government. The reign of Juan Peron in Argentina became the most iconic such arrangement to the Western observer, but General Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year rule over Chile after an American-supported coup in the 1970s proved the most enduring and the most resistant to eradication by subsequent leaders of an opposite bent. Pinochet himself openly bragged, “My library is filled with UN condemnations.” By combating Marxists and Communists during the Cold War, Pinochet ensured he would at the very least remain undisturbed by America, even as he carried out policies that would be labeled tyrannical by any objective measurement. As writer Jacob C. Hornberger put it while analyzing appraisals of Pinochet based on political background, “[T]error in the name of fighting terror is a grave criminal offense against humanity no matter what economic philosophy the state terrorist happens to hold.” Operation Condor: The History of the Notorious Intelligence Operations Supported by the United States to Combat Communists Across South America looks at the various intelligence operations and the winding chain of events that brought about conflicts in the region. You will learn about Operation Condor like never before.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
The Khmer Empire
Summary
The Khmer Empire, also known as the Angkor Empire, was a powerful empire of Southeast Asia that was established in AD 802 and ended in 1431 with the invasion of the Siamese and abandonment of Angkor. The Khmer Empire was responsible for many of the historic monuments and temples found throughout the jungles of modern-day Cambodia and also in other countries of Southeast Asia, all made possible by the fact the Khmer Empire reached across modern-day Cambodia, parts of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, making it a strategic trading partner with ships traveling from China and India. Of all the architecture, the empire is best known for constructing Angkor Wat, one of the modern world’s greatest wonders. Known in English as Angkor Wat (“City Temple”), the gigantic complex was built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century to serve as the king’s state temple and capital city. Since it has remained so finely preserved, it has maintained religious significance for nearly 900 years, first dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, and then Buddhist. Understandably, it has become one of Cambodia’s most potent symbols and tourist attractions, and it even appears on the Cambodian national flag. Angkor Wat continues to fascinate the world, both due to its sheer grandeur and size as well as its ornamental decorations both inside and out. With political strife in Cambodia having cooled, Angkor Wat is now a major tourist attraction, bringing upwards of half a million foreigners per year, which accounts for more than half of the nation’s tourists. As a result, the long-lasting influence this empire had on the people of Cambodia can still be felt today, with Angkor Wat being featured on the national flag. The Khmer Empire: The History and Legacy of One of Southeast Asia’s Most Influential Empires chronicles the remarkable history of the Khmer and their impact on the region. You will learn about the Khmer Empire like never before.
©2018 Charles River Editors (P)2018 Charles River Editors
The Aborigines and Maori: The History of the Indigenous Peoples in Australia and New Zealand
Summary
A land of almost three million square miles has lain since time immemorial on the southern flank of the planet, so isolated that it remained almost entirely outside of European knowledge until 1770. From there, however, the subjugation of Australia would take place rapidly. Within 20 years of the first British settlements being established, the British presence in Terra Australis was secure, and no other major power was likely to mount a challenge. In 1815, Napoleon would be defeated at Waterloo, and soon afterward would be standing on the barren cliffs of Saint Helena, staring across the limitless Atlantic. The French, without a fleet, were out of the picture, the Germans were yet to establish a unified state, let alone an overseas empire of any significance, and the Dutch were no longer counted among the top tier of European powers. In 1769, Captain James Cook’s historic expedition in the region would lead to an English claim on Australia, but before he reached Australia, he sailed near New Zealand and spent weeks mapping part of New Zealand’s coast. Thus, he was also one of the first to observe and take note of the indigenous peoples of the two islands. His instructions from the Admiralty were to endeavor at all costs to cultivate friendly relations with tribes and peoples he might encounter and to regard any native people as the natural and legal possessors of any land they were found to occupy. Cook, of course, was not engaged on an expedition of colonization, so when he encountered for the first time a war party of Maori, he certainly had no intention of challenging their overlordship of Aotearoa, although he certainly was interested in discovering more about them. Taking into account similarities of appearance, customs and languages spread across a vast region of scattered islands, it was obvious that the Polynesian race emerged from a single origin, and that origin Cook speculated was somewhere in the Malay Peninsula or the “East Indies”. In this regard, he was not too far from the truth. The origins of the Polynesian race have been fiercely debated since then, and it was only relatively recently, through genetic and linguistic research, that it can now be stated with certainty that the Polynesian race originated on the Chinese mainland and the islands of Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Oceania was, indeed, the last major region of the Earth to be penetrated and settled by people, and Polynesia was the last region of Oceania to be inhabited. The vehicle of this expansion was the outrigger canoe, and aided by tides and wind patterns, a migration along the Malay Archipelago, and across the wide expanses of the South Pacific, began sometime between 3,000 and 1,000 BC, reaching the Western Polynesian Islands in about 900 BC.
©2018 Charles River Editors (P)2018 Charles River Editors
Rook
Summary
Who needs a wedding ring when you can pick up a sword? A remarkable and utterly inventive novel from Sharon Cameron, author of The Dark Unwinding, which USA Today called "spellbindingly imaginative". History has a way of repeating itself. In the Sunken City that was once Paris, all who oppose the new revolution are being put to the blade. Except for those who disappear from their prison cells, a red-tipped rook feather left in their place. Is the mysterious Red Rook a savior of the innocent or a criminal? Meanwhile, across the sea in the Commonwealth, Sophia Bellamy's arranged marriage to the wealthy René Hasard is the last chance to save her family from ruin. But when the search for the Red Rook comes straight to her doorstep, Sophia discovers that her fiancé is not all he seems. Which is only fair, because neither is she. As the Red Rook grows bolder and the stakes grow higher, Sophia and René find themselves locked in a tantalizing game of cat and mouse. Daring intrigue, delicious romance, and spine-tingling suspense fill the audio of this extraordinary tale from award-winning author Sharon Cameron.
©2015 Sharon Cameron (P)2016 Scholastic Inc.